Former Programme: Arms Control and Disarmament
VERTIC’s Arms Control and Disarmament Programme was phased out in 2012, in favour of a larger programme on Verification and Monitoring. Traditionally comprising one or two staff members per project, it focused on the control of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The Programme also covered landmines, cluster munitions and small arms. The Programme broke much new ground during its existence, for instance:
- It was the first non-governmental programme to monitor nuclear testing during pre-CTBT times. It’s mostly known for its timely detection (within minutes) of a Chinese nuclear test in the early 1990s.
- It was the first non-governmental programme to use and release satellite imagery to track major environmental disasters (in this case Iraq blowing up oil-fields during the first Gulf War).
- It was the first non-governmental programme to ever get directly involved in government-to-government research on nuclear disarmament verification.
These pages give a selection of programme activities since 2000.